Legendary

Thor had his guards transfer Kipp, that backer, and the festival organizers up to Asgard and the dungeons in the citadel as soon as possible. I'd seen them once and the cells weren't as dire as you'd expect for a dungeon; clean and well lit, with reasonable furniture and good food and nary a rack in sight. But the only privacy was in the bathroom, there weren't separate facilities for men and women, no face to face contact, and no sound entered or left the cells. They were placed in individual cells, and the only time they'd be allowed to speak to somebody was on the visits from the lawyers--four for those there for two years, two for those there for one year. I put them out of my mind once Loki said they'd been settled in. I had other things to think about. My classes, for one thing. And my feathers finally came in, the pretty dark gray I liked. It was a relief both to stop itching and to get rid of the white feathers. I'd been literally carrying reminders of Vigrior on my back for a year.

Just after finals, I was contacted by MIT for a piece they were doing for the alumni magazine on notable returnees. Tony had also been contacted and we agreed to be interviewed. I had a week free where I was waiting for my grades. I went to the lab one day and talked about the findings from the research trip with Ann. She'd brought back a couple of 55 gallon drums with seawater and plastic trash for experiments in controlled conditions and I spent another day helping her set those up. We acquired an office just down the hall that we converted to a robotics lab for Tony. The data indicated that currently, our organisms worked better in a static environment to keep them clustered around the plastic, so we had a solution that had self-propelled scoops that would corral a certain amount of trash and seawater, douse it with the organisms, and let the organisms do their work before being released back into the sea. There were a lot of variables to consider: the bacteria worked best in this application but the algae would stay together better, there were possibilities of two stage treatment, maybe three, depending on what we could get the organisms to do. Ideally, the organisms could be crafted to be sprayed over a clump of garbage by a ship, drone, or plane and that would be the extent of human action (and cost). The organisms would take it from there. There were several plastic bottle manufacturers who were waiting impatiently for results and water conservancy groups who were volunteering to run more extensive tests themselves. The four of us got together to discuss hiring some help.

I got my grades back and wasn't best pleased. Two As and two Bs. Serena got three As and one B and graduated with her bachelors. We had a party. My uncle got four As and a B. I was just going to have to work harder. Aslyn was amused by my dissatisfaction, but she'd seen this every semester for years. I was taking two classes this summer, now that I'd gotten back into the discipline of school. Serena was too, but Bucky had gotten a summer internship at the Central Park zoo. He'd be doing most of the grunt work, including a lot of poop shoveling, but such was the lot of a zookeeper. If he was lucky and there was time, they'd let him work with some of the smaller, more placid animals toward the end.

The week after we got our grades, a writer for the alumni magazine came down for the interview. There were a few of us in the city who'd consented to be interviewed, and they were going to get us in one go. Tony and I did ours together at the office. The writer met our very significant others and had a look around before asking some softball questions about how we were adjusting to being back, what we were doing now, then fewer questions than I expected about Ragnarok and the trial. "You don't seem too worried that the recording was saved from destruction," the writer said to me, and I shrugged.

"The court said that the issue could be revisited once all the plaintiffs were dead. Thor was a plaintiff, and he's got a few thousand years of life expectancy yet. So I expect that after all that time there won't be a huge demand for the footage." The writer looked enlightened, and I knew that Thor would insist on this term being honored. Tony was asked about his Iron Man emeritus gig, the writer took a few pictures of us, and that was it. Of course, it doesn't do to be too controversial when you're trying to get alumni to part with their money, so it wasn't surprising that it wasn't a hard-hitting interview. I wouldn't have participated in one of those; I'd had enough of that with the trial. One thing that my new infamy did was propel Damian and me to get on the list to get our home built faster than we'd originally planned. If people weren't looking like they expected me to flap around, cutting them down with a sword, they wanted to talk or to take a selfie with me. I rather thought that would die down over time, but it was irritating and sometimes unpleasant. Eira was an even bigger celebrity, especially with children. She was nice to everybody but it wore on her too. She's not a fame-seeking kind of pup. When Daniel got wind that we were ready to start building at a dinner we had with him, he immediately bumped us up a few places with a Wayne-owned construction company. The upside to having money to spend on luxuries was that they were in less demand and therefore easier to get, so when enough construction materials were available, we'd be ready to go. When we signed the contract with the company, we added some bonus money for early completion at all stages, so that even if there was a glitch somewhere in the process, workers could still try for bonuses. Bonuses make people happy, and happy people do their best work. And there was a lot of work to be done on our proposed home.

The summer was hotter than usual, and at the end of the summer term (two As!) Damian took me upstate for a week and we camped. It was the first time that Damian had ever camped, which astonished me, but he seemed to really enjoy it. I liked being able to disconnect some and relax away from crowds in the wilderness. We brought a large hammock and lazed around in that plenty, reading, talking, and napping. Eira loved camping, romping after squirrels and chipmunks, flinging herself into streams, and everything else she could do.

Then it was back to school. I was taking five classes which included studio work and a seminar on nineteenth century building trades. I'd decided that my thesis would be about historic preservation challenges with Beaux Arts buildings and was starting the research. Thor had given permission for me to examine his embassy, so I had an excellent case study. Serena was starting the Masters in Architecture program and had a head start since she'd been allowed to take two courses spring semester for graduate credit. Aslyn was entering her second year of her MBA program and the second semester of law school, complaining heavily about the Socratic method but enjoying the challenges. Bucky had loved his internship and was looking into becoming a zoo vet. He'd been allowed to help the zookeepers with the penguins and the Children's Zoo. The goats were very curious about his arm. Margaret was finally getting more interesting projects in urban planning now that she'd studied enough to catch up and was a lot happier. Karen was so busy with construction management that we hardly ever saw her, but we all texted a lot. Carol had a real gift for finish carpentry and her master was talking about giving her a test to advance her to journeyman status if she continued to progress so rapidly. And Dagny had been accepted to the landscape architecture program for the fall while working part time at her job. She couldn't test out of many classes and was nervous about the academic challenge, but she was highly motivated and everybody promised to tutor her if she needed help. Well, we were going to be useless with the art and landscape architecture, but where we could help, we would.

Aunt Becca had been accepted at flight school before she told anybody what she was planning. I wasn't terribly surprised; she always was an adventure seeker and I'd wondered when I was a kid what she could have done in a more permissive society with funding. She'd been going to pay with loans and financial aid, but Bucky and I ganged up on her and played the family card, so she caved. My uncle and I exchanged a high five after she left. We could afford to help our family out and it was a pleasure to do so. She wanted to make the flights up to the orbital and sub-orbital stations. So cool. Grandpa George wanted to be a CPA like Dad; they were planning to go into business together once Grandpa was credentialed. Mom's coffee shop was a huge success; she had hired enough help so that she could focus on managing the business rather than the counter and they were open twenty-four hours a day due to all the night shifts in businesses in the area.

Toward the end of the fall, the intense interest in the valkyries generated by that damned movie and the lawsuits finally started to die away and I started to relax a little. Eira was still a minor celebrity, though; people either couldn't equate her with the fierce dogs of war from the movie or they thought she was too cute or something, but she did love the attention. She never took treats from anybody, though, after someone had laced a jerky-style treat with a sedative. After the police questioned him, it was discovered that he'd wanted to examine her, take tissue samples with a view to using her DNA. Maybe other things too, but the police didn't say and I didn't ask. She'd sniffed that something was wrong with the treat, knocked the guy down and sat on him until the police I called arrived. It made the news, and such was public attachment to Eira that there was a lot of outrage and people stopped offering her anything except head skritches or hugs.

The holidays were a lot less exciting this year. Thanksgiving was peaceful, Damian and I went to the Wayne Enterprises Christmas party, we had a little Stark Industry party, we went to a few parties that were good for business, and then it was Christmas. Daniel had gone out on the estate with Damian and me and we'd found a nice fir that had been felled several years ago, apparently by a storm, and we'd cut it up for Yule logs. One for the main house, one for our apartment, and enough for gifts to the other valkyries and family. I brought the piece that Alfred had preserved for me from Skuld's gift the previous year, and lit the log at the mansion as well as the one in our apartment. This year I went up to Asgard for the main festival, taking Damian so he could see why I was so attached. It was the first time that I'd seen Sif, the boys, and Torunn in far too long, but they were busy too. It was a good time to catch up with Eir and Kata, too, and I brought gifts for the Norn and the swans, including a Yule log. The swans didn't like my pretty gray feathers any more than they'd liked the white ones.

Grades were posted after Christmas, and I got four As and one B. Better. We went to a New Years Eve party that was uneventful, like the last one, and I hoped that the new year would be more peaceful than the last one.

Toward the end of January, we got the word from our contractor that the work was ready to begin on our house. Alfred assured us that he'd be happy to work with the contractors to provide limited-use gate keys to their vehicles that would permit access during working hours, so we didn't have to worry about being there to let them in and out. It was exciting, and I felt like we were building our future too. I hoped that we would fill our house with as many good memories as the mansion had.

I had lunch with Steve; he was getting to participate in the student showcase for design later that semester and he asked if I'd model his designs for him. Surprised, I asked why he didn't get someone with experience, or his wife. Emma had the perfect figure for modeling, and I knew that he had the money; Thor hadn't compensated the Ragnarok generals as generously as the valkyries, but they weren't far behind us. He flushed. "Emma isn't comfortable with people evaluating her on how she looks. I'm not saying you enjoy it, but I saw those old clips that the news showed during the trial, of you and Damian arriving for social events. You have exactly the attitude I want--confident, cool, you wear the clothes, they don't wear you. You don't walk in such an exaggerated way. You're lovely, but you look like a normal woman, which is who I'm designing for. And yeah, you're recognized, and I don't think that could hurt. I need to set myself apart from the competition."

I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing. "Uncle Steve, you've already had a museum exhibit of your work."

He waved that off. "That was superhero costume design, not clothes that anybody can wear. It's a whole new ballgame." He looked terrified. I thought he was being a nervous Nellie, his work was really good, but I agreed to it anyway. He looked relieved and I stifled a laugh. Then we went for ice cream.

"Ice cream is such an uncle thing," I said as we walked to the nearest parlor. He looked amused and I elaborated. "Bucky and I went for ice cream a lot, for celebrations and comfort, everything in between. Still do, actually, there's a place on campus that sells house-made ice cream. Lots of good associations."

"I'm grateful you think of me that way," he said after a bit. I shrugged.

"You're my uncle's best friend, and I've come around to seeing you as less than a pest," I said, and he laughed hard enough that people on the street stared at us.

"Well, I do have an ulterior motive," he said as he held the door for me. I saw Emma, Bucky, and a strange man at a table, both of them chowing down on generous servings. The strange man just had a single scoop. It was interesting how our mutations persisted in this second life. J was taking a class on that topic in catch up med school, in fact. Prudently, he hadn't asked me for DNA samples this time. I had volunteered them, however, once he'd promised to keep the source anonymous. The clinic still had my sequenced genome, before and after the mutations took hold, in their old database, plus my new one. In my case it was a good thing, since they still burned off more calories than a normal physiology. I paid before Steve could.

"You paid for lunch," I pointed out. He rolled his eyes and we joined the others.

"Sweetie, this is Colin James," Bucky said, introducing me. I sized him up.

"You wrote the book on the Avengers," I said. It was hard not to remember who he was; I'd been a little too young when I read it and the parts about my uncle had made a lasting impact. He nodded, and we all did a little chatting about the Big Return and life before and after.

"I'm sure you've got an idea why I'm here," Mr James said after a bit.

"There are a lot of journalists around," I said, spooning up some of the rich, delicious chocolate ice cream. Bernstein and Woodward, Hannah Arendt, Margaret Bourke-White, Ed Bradlee, Robert Capa, Walter Cronkite, Ida B Wells, Dorothy Thompson, Ernie Pyle, Gordon Parks, Edward R Murrow, Ida Tarbell, and Seymour Hersh were among those trying to reestablish themselves. "Are you updating your book?"

He nodded. "I'm working on a couple of projects," he said. "One is to update the Avengers book. In all the time since it was published and updated, it's only been out of print twice, for a total of about forty years. There's renewed interest. And then I'm working on histories of the city's superheroes and street-level heroes. I'm interested in interviewing you both to add dimension to Bucky's story and in your own right, as a trainer for the Avengers. I've got the original Avengers on board, including Dr Banner, which is something I didn't have before." I knew Bruce was still working in radiation, but his focus had changed from creating superheroes to solar radiation for space travel.

"You don't have to do it if you don't want," Emma said to me. "And I realize that this meeting seems rather pressurizing, but Steve said he was taking you to lunch, and you guys always seem to end up getting ice cream. I like ice cream too." She smiled. "So if you don't want to participate, nobody's going to push you."

I shoveled a big spoonful of ice cream into my mouth as I thought. "What are you going to do with Bucky's chapter?" I asked Mr James after I swallowed.

"You've obviously heard of the HYDRA document cache that detailed his captivity and... treatment," he said, and I nodded. "I have access to the totality of those records, and I'll be summarizing them. Basically, what I want from you--and I've asked to speak to your grandfather too--is your story with Barnes here. I understand you tracked him down. What was that like and why did you do it? It's very clear that the two of you are close. How did your relationship develop? And in regard to information about you in the other book, I would be asking questions about the lab accident, how you found out that your DNA had mutated, how you reacted, how you discovered what you could do, what led you to becoming the Avengers' trainer. That book will only cover that time frame, up to your death. If you want to talk about anything after that, it's up to you."

"Even if I don't cooperate, I'll still be in your books," I said. He nodded.

"Yes. But I can promise you that your decision to participate with interviews or not won't prevent me from writing a fair and balanced account." He thought a moment. "And I'm very good about keeping things off the record if you specifically ask."

"He is," Emma confirmed. "And he didn't use some stuff Tony said because he was drinking during the interview." I rolled my eyes.

"At least Tony's not that big a mess anymore," I said. "Well, let me think about it." James nodded and gave me a business card.

"It surprises me that in some respects life has changed so little," I said to James, smiling. "Business cards. Texts. I thought by now we'd all have chips in our brains that would provide instant communications, memory so I wouldn't have to take notes in class."

"There was a period when cyborg implants were the rage," James said unexpectedly. I looked at him with interest. "The brain's a remarkable organ, and in a burst of optimism, researchers tested that kind of technology, implants of all kinds. But it turns out that messing with the brain is not good. Some of the lower classes of animals did ok, but it made people nuts. Like padded cell, straitjacket nuts. Not being able to turn off technology isn't good or even the small electrical current that the chips used even when they were shut off for sleep. Some people got really violent, and the chips weren't designed to be removable. So the legacy is basically that some chips are still in use, but they're for monitoring purposes, like telling doctors they have an estimated time frame to grow a new organ for someone." I thought about my little tracker device and decided not to mention it. It had been tested the last time I'd had a physical and didn't need to be replaced yet. "People have pivoted, using advances in cloning to alter their appearance rather than surgery or artificial substances. Cells from the patient can be induced to grow new organs or missing limbs. These days Bucky wouldn't have to rely even on Emma's craftsmanship, and that's all covered by the national health plan. And if you don't like the color of your eyes, the shape of your nose, there are genetic therapies. They're still elective, still cost quite a bit, so they're for those who can afford them." We talked about this interesting topic for a bit, then the ice cream was all gone and we all picked up our things.

Bucky walked back to campus with me. "If you don't want to, don't agree to the interviews," he said after a bit. "Colin will be ok. We're just agreeing in order to help him out. You were right, it's a tough job market out there for journalists, and he did us a favor by making us more human when we needed public support."

"I'm going to think about it. I'm kind of tired of public attention, though." Bucky nodded and we talked about other things. I was submitting applications to firms to get a summer internship at a firm doing historic preservation. Bucky was going to go back to the zoo.

"I like animals more than people, a lot," he said, and I nodded.

"I'm just glad I have only two more semesters after this. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad to be getting out of school."

Bucky laughed. "You want to be doing, not studying. You've got a lot of education already."

"Are you free for lunch this week?" I asked, and he considered before nodding. "There's this woman i met who I want you to meet."

"Are you setting me up, sweetie?" His expression was guarded, a nice blend of aghast and a hint of interest.

"Yes. Her name is Abigail, she's studying actuarial science, and she's pretty awesome. Also a Returnee." I was able to cajole him into agreeing without too much trouble. I set up the lunch for Friday. My good deed done, I scuttled off to class, then to home, where I talked with Damian about the request for interviews. It wasn't about getting permission, but a fresh eye. After we talked it out, I decided that as long as James could assure me that there wouldn't be special emphasis on my parts, I'd go ahead. I could get behind helping a friend.

On Friday, I met Abigail and we went to the nicest campus cafe, meeting Bucky there. I saw that he'd worn a dress shirt and shaved. I smiled in appreciation. I liked my uncle scruffy and in flannel, but this made a better first impression. You always like knowing that somebody has made an effort for you. I introduced Abigail, a pretty woman with long dark hair, a smooth cafe au lait complexion, and blue-green eyes. He smiled, she smiled, and they slid into a nice conversation. I helped out by sitting back and saying little. When Bucky went to get more napkins, she turned to me and grinned. We'd met in the weight room and become workout buddies, although I still practiced once a week with Bucky at the tower, shot with Hawkeye, and took dance with Natasha. "He's nice," she said. "Cuter than I expected, too."

"He's surprisingly cuddly," I said, and she laughed. My lunch was cut short by some sort of screwup with the blueprint printer and I had to get back and fix it if I wanted to turn in my work on time. On the one hand it was good to get the text message so that there wouldn't be last-second panic, on the other, I wanted to see if they were going to go out on a date. I'd have to ask later.

And they did have several dates, but it didn't grow into a relationship. I started to look around again, meeting more people. I had relatives to set up. Not just my uncle, but also Mark, Daniel, and Xander. Martha was doing well for herself in London and had an active social life, as did my grandpa and Becca.

The weeks slid by, productive and interesting. I was offered two internships and chose the one at the more avant-garde firm. They were more focused on what I wanted to do, which was careful renovation of the exterior and interior while radically overhauling the space between walls and addressing how to deal with the aftereffects of climate change. Fimbulwinter had largely reset the climate, but there was a lot of damage to overcome, environmentally and to cities, especially coastal structures. Plus the weather could still be a little wild, so protecting the historic buildings we still had was a concern. It was exciting; I was going to drop the architecture program once I got the classes I wanted to take in that area since I didn't want to be an architect. The lab was continuing to grow; Ann and the two scientists we'd hired had developed a two-step process that had enormous promise, and they were going out for a two week trial. Damian was busy, happy, and focused. And he'd just gotten an offer to sit on the board of directors for an up-and-coming tech company. It wasn't uncommon for people to sit on multiple boards, and it was a good indication of how valued his acumen was becoming. His after-hours activities with Nightwing continued, and I had to patch them up more than I'd like. The second bedroom had become our default medical suite where I could patch them up, with the suite in the batcave reserved for serious situations. Fortunately, we hadn't had one of those for awhile.

I showed up for fittings. Steve was incredibly fussy and meticulous, but it paid off; his construction was superb and he received first prize in the showcase. He got some good press out of it too, and it looked like he'd be able to launch his own line after he graduated. And he very generously let me keep the clothes I'd worn for the showcase. It was pretty canny, turns out, because I got stopped on the street by women asking where I'd gotten the pieces.

It was a fine spring afternoon when I turned in my final project for acoustics, and I felt relieved that the semester was over. I'd extended my degree program, even after dropping the Masters in Architecture, by taking so many courses in building science and technology, but I felt it was well worth it. I didn't start my internship for a week, so I'd get to sleep in, take it easy. the interviews with Mr James were scheduled then as well. I was deciding what I'd make for dinner and assembling a shopping list in my mind when I was bumped into on the street and looked up. "Excuse me," the man murmured, looking at me intently, and I smiled absently and walked on. It wasn't until I was weighing the comparative merits of two different baking chocolates, that I realized why the man had looked vaguely familiar. It was Damian's grandpa. The one we didn't talk about.